Title:

Sara's Secrets for Weeknight Meals
(Broadway Books, 2008) ISBN 978-0767916592 0-76791659X

Theme:

Sara Moulton offers 200 delicious recipes for healthy fast food for everyday meals. The 358-page cook book includes both American and ethnic recipes.

Sample Recipes:

Food processor pizza dough. Butternut squash puree. Soba noodle and chicken salad. Fried green tomato sandwiches with goat cheese. Brie, bacon and spaghetti frittata. Green chile and zucchini quiche. Fusilli with broccoli and prosciutto. Orzo and basmati pilaf with spring vegetable ragout. Mustard chutney roasted chicken thighs. Baked fish with horseradish crust. Grilled shiitake, sweet potato and eggplant kabobs. Crispy polenta slices with gorgonzola and leeks. Tortellini pepperoni spinach soup. Rouille. Parsley pesto. Blueberry yogurt pie.

Notable Elements:

The mail order sources section at the back of Sara's Secrets for Weeknight Meals helps readers find items like panko bread crumbs, piquillo peppers, chipotles in adobo sauce, soba noodles and dried porcini mushrooms.

Helpful sidebars answer questions like: what is the difference between golden and black raisins? (Black raisins are sun-dried; golden raisins are preserved with sulphur dioxide and dried with artificial heat.)

The Basics chapter provides recipes for creole spice mix, garam masala, panko bread crumbs and croutons, as well as cooking techniques.

Tone / Style:

If you think that you don't have time to prepare home-cooked meals, then Sara's Secrets for Weeknight Meals is the cookbook for you. Sara Moulton's easy recipes take 20-30 minutes preparation time and 30-45 minutes total time. Each recipe specifies hands-on time and total preparation time.

In the introduction, Sara Moulton describes how to use slow cookers, food processors and ingredients from grocery store salad bars and delis to speed up meal preparation. A 'V' symbol identifies vegetarian recipes.

Sara Moulton's introductory comments help readers understand recipe ingredients. For example, she describes peppercorns as berries that grow in clusters on the Piper nigrum vine, with green, black and white varieties resulting from different processing steps. Pink peppercorns are not peppercorns. They are dried berries of the Baies rose plant found in Madagascar.

Visuals:

Twenty-four color images depict ingredients and several dishes in Sara's Secrets for Weeknight Meals.

Contents:

• Introduction
• How to use this book
• Stocking your pantry
• Basics
• Soup for supper
• Entrée salads
• The substantial sandwich
• Breakfast for dinner
• Pasta and grains
• Poultry
• From the meat department
• From the sea
• Vegetable plates
• Shop and serve
• Just open the pantry
• Cooking ahead
• Side dishes take center stage
• Quick sauces
• Easy desserts
• Sources
• Index

Author:

Sara Moulton

Claim to fame:

Sara Moulton is executive chef at Gourmet magazine, food editor of ABC's Good Morning America, cook book author and TV show hostess.

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